The state of information security in healthcare

October 8, 2019

Despite precautions taken by business and organizations, data hacking and theft continue

The rising number of data breaches has caused businesses and organizations to focus more attention and resources on information security. Even so, data theft and hacking continue at an alarming rate.The Ponemon Institute recently partnered with the document security firm Shred-It to survey more than 15,000 IT security personnel and corporate executives in healthcare and other industries on the state of information security at their workplace. Here are responses in six important categories from respondents employed in healthcare.

Number of data breaches experienced in the past 12 months
None: 23%
1: 23%
2-5: 28%
<5: 17%
Don’t know: 8%

Did one or more data breach involve loss or theft of documents or devices containing sensitive or confidential information?
Yes: 71%
No: 21%
Not sure: 8%

Top five categories of lost/stolen information*
Customer/consumer information: 44%
Employee records: 33%
Financial statements/information: 30%
Internal communications/emails: 26%
Marketing/sales reports: 25%
*Multiple responses permitted

Have you ever been targeted by a phishing e-mail or social engineering scheme at work?
Yes: 55%
No: 39%
Unsure: 6%

Have you ever received an email containing sensitive/confidential information you were not meant to receive?
Yes: 84%
No: 16%

Size of organization’s 2019 IT/physical security budget
$0-$500,000: 33%
$501,000-$2.5 million: 29%
$2.6 million-$10 million: 30%
>$10 million: 8%

The state of information security in healthcare

Jeffrey Bendix, Senior Editor